Refocusing...

A statement in my morning devotional jumped off my "smarter-than-me" phone screen & practically slapped me in the face:

"If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate!  All you need to do is change what you think about and you will be practicing Christian meditation." (Nicky & Pippa Gumbel from HTB in London)

Wow... this rocked me back on my heels.  I've often thought if worry was an occupation, I could be a CEO - if it were an Olympic event, I'd have gold medals lining my trophy shelf.

As a Christ follower, when I worry I feel guilt = "Why isn't my faith strong enough to overcome this?" I question myself... "Do I know love Jesus enough?"  or "I'm doing it wrong" I complain to myself.

A simple shift in focus is in order.  Instead of giving power to whatever it is I'm worrying about at the moment, I need to remember the fact that Jesus gave His life on the cross for me.  He paid it all.

A New Day...

I've been struggling with a less than congenial attitude as of late.  I've blamed it on various factors: the never-ending winter here in the Northeast; aches / pains / headaches; the unpredictability of my work flow...

To be honest, I've just been making a choice to put on my crabby pants and be snippy with my beloved husband.  I was doing some serious wallowing in my prolonged pity party.

Today I chose differently...

I got out of bed shortly after our alarm starting playing hits from the 70's & 80's and started a new morning routine:  I sat myself down at my desk and cracked open one of my devotional books and then another; next, I pressed play on one of my Leslie Sansone Walk At Home DVDs and did a mile while never leaving the house.  The rest of my morning played out as normal with a shower, breakfast, coffee and a twenty-minute drive to work.

After a full day at the office and some time updating our worship backgrounds on the multi-media computer, I'm feeling tired - but not exhausted (like I have been feeling for the last several months).  Tonight I get to hang out with my musical friends in the Worship Team Life Group.

Venturing Into Another Bloggy Adventure...

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What's an Echo?

Until recently, I thought an echo was "a sound or series of sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener" (as defined by my trusty resource Google) - but I found out there is an amazing device called an Amazon Echo  

My friend Kristina explained what this puppy can do, but I felt I had to do a little more research on my own.  So of course, I headed over to Amazon to check it out.  In short, it is an amazing device which made me think we are beginning to live in a Star Trek-like world.  

While reading through the reviews, I stumbled upon an entertaining entry from a sci-fi author & now I'm off to fire up my Kindle to download his e-book... Live Long & Prosper

Choices

The intent for today = arrive at the office 1/2 early to get "a jump" on things.


The mistake = leaving my office key in my blue bag & taking my brown bag


The discovery of said mistake = when I pulled into the parking lot at work.


The choice = kick myself in the butt all day, turning the oversight into a grand tragedy or suck it up and enjoy a daytime drive home to retrieve my office key.

Death to Procrastination

Today, I engaged in various activities to end my natural tendency toward procrastination and it felt great!

First, I completed today's reading - my church has a corporate reading program where we all read the same Bible verses during the week.  (My previous mode of operation is to read the entire weeks worth on Saturday.)  Today we read Psalm 4 which sent me on a trip down memory lane to when I was a member of a Lutheran Youth choir called "Sing for Joy".  Ahhhh, those were the "good ole days" when we all had matching outfits and put on concerts for the folks in the convalescent home.

On my way to work, I made a stop that I've been meaning to do since before Christmas. I delivered my Christmas Jar.  For the last several years, our pastors have encouraged us to fill our mason jar with spare change during the year.  The intent is to give the jar away as a way to bless others and remind them that God is thinking of them.  I was fairly certain of the neighbor who was to be the recipient of my jar, but I just couldn't get my guts up to stop by to give it to them.  Prompted by Sunday's sermon "Procrastination - One of the Rocks in our Shoes", I ignored my fear & pulled into the driveway, knocked on the door and said "This is for you."  The lady of the house was leery at first, but was very thankful. It was a blessing for me too.

After a full and productive day at the office, I headed over to my local YMCA and turned in my membership application.  In 2011, I started my fitness journey and developed a steady at home workout schedule with my resistance bands & my Chalene Extreme DVD's.  I was a consistent until I April of 2012 and I fell off the fitness bandwagon.  Today, the inactivity came to a close - I paid my prorated membership fee, found out that the normal sign up fee was waived (BONUS), got a tour of the facility, borrowed a combination lock & signed myself up for a spin class. I thought I was going to just keel over half way through, but I toughed it out and completed 11 miles - Wooo Hooo!

Playing with Google

Tonight, I stumbled upon a website which clued me in on several cool Google tricks.  I fell in love with #2 on the list (probably because I've always thought #2 tries harder) = Goglogo

I proceeded to create some custom logos...

I did have to engage in some "monkey work" to get these puppies saved as image files - but the cutting and pasting of the characters was worth it.